World News in Brief: November 23

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Sunday that a deal has been struck for Turkey to host the 31st UN Climate Change Conference (COP31) in 2026, with Australia assuming the role of President of Negotiations in the lead-up to and at the meeting.

Newly arrived Afghan refugees receive water at a temporary camp in Kabul, Afghanistan, Nov. 23, 2025. A total of 2,102 Afghan families with 11,855 members returned to their homeland from neighboring Iran and Pakistan on Saturday, Afghanistan's High Commission for Addressing Returnees Problems said Sunday. (Photo: Xinhua)
Newly arrived Afghan refugees receive water at a temporary camp in Kabul, Afghanistan, Nov. 23, 2025. A total of 2,102 Afghan families with 11,855 members returned to their homeland from neighboring Iran and Pakistan on Saturday, Afghanistan's High Commission for Addressing Returnees Problems said Sunday. (Photo: Xinhua)

* World leaders at the 20th Group of 20 (G20) Summit reached broad consensus on disaster resilience, debt sustainability, just energy transitions and critical minerals as they adopted the G20 South Africa Summit's Leaders' Declaration on Saturday.

* Guinea-Bissau on Sunday launched its presidential and legislative elections, with more than 960,000 registered voters set to choose a new head of state and 102 members of the National People's Assembly.

* Addressing the first session of the 20th Group of 20 (G20) Summit on Saturday in Johannesburg, South Africa, Chinese Premier Li Qiang urged the G20 economies to stay committed to solidarity, firmly uphold free trade and build an open world economy in the face of a sluggish global economic recovery.

* A Ukrainian drone attack sparked a fire at the Shatura Power Station in the Moscow region, regional governor Andrey Vorobyov said Sunday. Vorobyov said the station's power supply was not disrupted as backup lines were activated promptly.

* German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said on Saturday that ending the crisis in Ukraine requires the consent of both Ukraine and its European partners, rather than major powers.

* Delegations from Ukraine and the United States will hold consultations in Switzerland in the coming days on the possible parameters of a future peace agreement with Russia, Rustem Umerov, secretary of Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council, said Saturday.

* Civilian and military air traffic at Eindhoven Airport in the Netherlands has been suspended due to drones, Dutch Minister of Defense Ruben Brekelmans said on social media platform X late Saturday. The number of drones involved remains unknown.

* The number of students and teachers who were abducted after suspected terrorists attacked a school in Nigeria's central state of Niger on Friday has risen from 227 to 315, said the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) on Saturday.

* Syrian authorities imposed a curfew in central Syria's Homs on Sunday and deployed security forces after the killing of a Bedouin couple triggered retaliatory attacks and widespread unrest in the city.

* Gaza's Civil Defense said on Saturday that Israel launched a series of airstrikes on the Gaza Strip, resulting in at least 22 deaths and dozens of injuries in the enclave.

* Flooding displaced over 5,000 people in Malaysia, with the hardest-hit area being the northern state of Kelantan, according to authorities on Sunday.

* Cambodia exported bicycles worth 502.8 million USD to international markets in the first 10 months of 2025, with a year-on-year rise of 47.6 percent, said a Ministry of Commerce report on Saturday.

* Dubai, one of the seven emirates of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), approved its budget cycle for the 2026-2028 fiscal years on Sunday, setting total expenditure at 302.7 billion AED (about 82.4 billion USD) and projected revenues at 329.2 billion AED.

* Nepal continued to post growth in foreign trade, recording a 24.18 percent year-on-year surge in the first four months of the current 2025-26 fiscal year, a government agency said on Sunday.

Xinhua
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